


True Believers

by ToukoTai



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Black & White | Pokemon Black and White Versions
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-05-23 18:02:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6125302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToukoTai/pseuds/ToukoTai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>That time Touko & Touya went on a cross region journey in a bid to see ‘em all. And wound up kidnapping Red two thirds of the way in. But he's totally okay with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In honor of pokemon day, I went back to my pokemon fic roots. I just was too tired to post it here yesterday.
> 
> AKA: My explanation for where they were during the events of Black & White 2.  
> Title and lyrics from the song True Believers by Bouncing Souls

_We live our life in our own way,_   
_Never really listened to what they say,_   
_The kind of faith that doesn't fade away_   
_We are the true believers_

 

Red’s not sure what to make of the two kids in front of him. Well, maybe kid was a misnomer. The boy and girl climbing their way over the ledge of his cave, screaming and hollering and energetically kicking each other were actually older then him. He’d guess eighteen or nineteen, not that they were acting it at the moment.

“Ha! First!” The girl crowed, jumping up with both fists in the air. Her face was a wide bright smile and shining blue eyes. The boy groaned as he heaved himself over the edge, flopping in an uncoordinated pile at the mouth of the cave.

“You cheated, you cheating cheater.” He gasped out, jabbing a finger at the girl from his position on the snow covered ground. She flicked a strand of brown hair over her shoulder and grinned smugly down at him.

“Prove it.” The boy grumbled, arm flopping back to the ground, while the girl gloated above him. Red wondered if he should draw attention to himself. It’d been a long time since he’d had any interaction with people who didn’t already know him, Green certainly didn’t count. And the two teenagers weren’t paying him any mind at all. Red wasn’t even entirely sure they realized he was there. It made him feel awkward and helpless in a way that he hadn’t since his short stint as Champion.

In the end, it was the boy who noticed him. He’d stumbled back to his feet, brushing at the clumps of snow on his pants. The girl had her back to the cave, surveying the way they’d come with a self satisfied air. The boy slowly straightened up, swatting at his jacketed arms and raised his head to lock eyes with Red. 

“Touko, Touko!” He reached behind and yanked the girl’s shoulder around, his eyes never leaving Red’s.

“What? What?” She snapped, turning around with the boy’s motion.

“It’s him!” The note of admiration is something Red is used to and hates. It’s how people talked about him when he was champion, in hushed voices with pointed whispers. It’s the tone that chased him up the mountain to start with. He fingers a pokeball, ready to send them back down the mountain as fast as he could.

“Who? N? That kid doesn’t look like N. He’s too short.” Touko stopped for a minute before adding. “And his hair’s not green.”

“No, it’s him. The guy!” Touko gave the boy a completely unimpressed look.

“What guy?”

“Didn’t the professor tell you?”

“No, I never talked to the professor.” The boy’s head whipped around to stare at her incredulously.

“What? Then how’d you find out about the mountain?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Kicked the Viridian gym leader’s ass. He mentioned it in passing, decided to check it out.”

“And he didn’t mention him?” The girl shrugged, arms folded across her chest.

“He may have tried to, but like hell am I gonna stick around to hear him chatter about the people he knew as a kid. I’m a trainer, not his bff.” Red can almost picture the scene, can almost see Green’s indignant face and hear his angry shout at being so easily brushed off. It brings a small smile to his face. A smile that dies as Touya recounts Red’s list of achievements. The only thing stopping Red from calling Charizard out to chase them away, is Touko’s commentary that Touya ignores with the air of long practice and stubbornness.

“He took down Team Rocket, like twice, (‘I have no idea what that is and neither do you.’) beat all eight Kanto gyms, (“Well, so have we.”) and became the youngest Indigo League Champion.(“Iris is younger then him.) He’s practically a living legend.(“He’s like twelve.”)” The two locked eyes in a heated staring match, which Touko took it upon herself to break.

“Why are _you_ so impressed, Touya?” She asked, a curious emphasis on ‘you’, yet looking completely unconcerned. Touya stopped for a second, as though whatever thought Touko had conveyed with that ‘you’ had not even occurred to him.

“Well, yeah but.” Touya scrambled. “He did it on his own and he was younger then us!” Touko cast a look over at Red and he tried not to wince as her blue eyes swept over his frame and locked with his red ones.

“Hey kid, that true?” He nodded slowly, any second now she’d stop with the blase attitude and act like her brother was. Any second now. “Good to know the authority figures are just as useless in other regions as in Unova.” 

Or maybe not. Red canted his head to the side. This was uncharted territory.

“Touko!” Touya hissed, “Play nice.” The girl shrugged her shoulders.

“I am!” She protested. “The whole point of gym leaders and the league is to handle the pokemon related problems that come up. But guess fucking what?” She threw her hands up in the air. “I’ve never seen them do _anything_ when it counted!” She jabbed Touya in the chest with a finger. “When the chips were down it was us. They left their job to a couple of wet behind the ears teenagers because of some stupid ass prophecy. We hadn’t even been trainers for a year!” Touya rubbed at his chest.

“Okay, you might, miiiight have a point.” He conceded, Touko smirked, arms folded triumphantly over her chest. “A little one.” Touko had already turned her attention back to Red. Red blinked in bewilderment, not even sure he wanted to know what that exchange was about.

“So you’ve been here…how long?” She asked. “Give me a ballpark figure here.” Red was saved from the awkwardness of not being able to answer by Touya.

“Probably two or three years. Give or take.”

“Really? All by yourself?” Touko eyed Red, he nodded a little. Touko smacked Touya in the chest with the back of her hand. “Touya, that is _so sad_. So. Sad. We can’t leave him here, we have to take him with us.”

“He’s not a stray lillipup, Touks.” Touya scratched under his hat. “Shouldn’t he get a say in it?” Touko gave him an incredulous look.

“No. He thought running away to the top of a mountain was a wonderful idea for three whole years. He doesn’t get a say.”

“Alright, alright. So…we’ve been through Johto and Kanto,” Touya counted off on his fingers, “That leaves Hoenn next.”

“Ever been to Hoenn?” Touko asked him, Red shook his head. Touya grinned. 

“Then let’s take a little walk.”

Which is how Red found himself on Slateport beach in Hoenn. About as far from Mt. Silver as you could get. Sun shining brightly, warm breeze coming off the water and the sound of waves filling his ears. Well, waves and the shrieks of Touko and Touya. Touya had dumped half a bottle of sunscreen on Touko’s back and she did not take such offenses lying down. It looked like she might be in the process of trying to drown her brother in the surf.

Red figured he might have to intervene this time.

The two had practically forced him to buy swim shorts. Insisting that he join them fully in their beach going activities.

“You’ve got a pretty substantial bank account,” Touya pointed out, tapping distractedly at his pokegear. “May as well make the most of it, am I right?” Red privately thought he was just relieved that Touko’s full attention had landed squarely on Red and not him this shopping trip.

“You’re so right.” Touko agreed from where she was preoccupied with Red’s swim suitless dilemma. Touko flicked through the swim suit display, holding one pair of swim shorts up to Red after another. Shaking or nodding her head as she went. Then going back through the ones that had been given a head nod for a second opinion. Red didn’t even pretend he knew what she was doing, just took the one she dumped in his arms and paid for it dutifully.

Now here he was parked under a beach umbrella, sand shifting under the huge blanket towel Touko apparently kept for ‘this kinds of adventures’ watching the twins and all their pokemon, (his own included) racing around the water.

And while Red might have felt extremely awkward and over exposed, at least Blastoise, lapras, venusaur and pikachu were happy frolicking the salt water. Charizard glided lazily on the sea breezes far in the sky above, espeon napped curled in a ball next to him in the shade. So even though the whole beach day thing put Red on edge, his pokemon were happy and so by extension he was reassured. 

Just as Red was thinking perhaps inner peace might be obtained by sneaking off to the ferry museum,Touya grabbed his shoulders in a firm grip. Touko’s hands clamped around his ankles. Despite his struggles he was lifted in the air, marched to the sea edge and thrown into the water.

He came up gasping and sputtering to the sound of laughter.

“You just looked so sad out there!” Touko giggled. Touya’s arms were wrapped around his stomach from laughter as Red treaded water feeling very much like a drowned Ratatta. Until he felt the solid rough shell of Blastoise under his feet, as the water pokemon rose up under him like a behemoth from the deep. Red let his fingers catch on the rough plates of the shell, as the front half of blastoise broke the surface of the water. Deep brown black eyes trained on the two laughing twins, who were not laughing so much now.

“Oh. Shi-” Touya started to say just as he caught a low power jets of blastoise’s water gun. Touko shrieked and ran back out of the water but wasn’t quite fast enough as she was drenched from head to toe in the cold water.

Red laughed, he laughed so hard he almost fell off his blastoise’s back.

Maybe there was something to this beach thing after all.


	2. Chapter 2

Traveling with Touko and Touya was...very different from anything Red had done before. He’d never really traveled with anyone to start with. Which meant he didn’t exactly  _ have _ a benchmark to measure them against.

But he strongly suspected that Touko and Touya were a class all their own.

“I dare you to drink this bottle of barbeque sauce in under two minutes.” Touko looked down at the bottle on the picnic table and then up at Touya.

“Oh yeah?” Her eyes narrowed in calculation. “What’ll you give me if I do?”

“One hundred pokebucks.” Touya enunciates clearly. Red slows his chewing, almost stopping as he watches the exchange between the siblings. It seemed like the two could turn anything into a competition or bet or dare. Interesting to watch to say the least.

“Deal!” Touko swiped the bottle off the table. She popped the top off and sniffed the contents. Touya was starting to look like he had second thoughts about the whole thing when it was clear Touko had no doubts about the challenge.

“Wait, wait. If you  _ can’t _ drink it, then you give  _ me _ a hundred pokebucks.” Touko grinned at him over the bottle. She lifted it in a mock ‘cheers’ gesture and started drinking straight from the bottle. Two large gulps and she pulled the bottle away from her mouth to grin ferally at Touya.

“You’re  _ fucked _ !” She snarled, sauce staining a ring above her upper lip. Red forgot all about eating to watch in horrified fascination as she tilted the bottle back and chugged the contents in less then thirty seconds. Not even stopping for breath until she slammed the empty sauce bottle back onto the table top. “Pay up, motherfucker.”

Touya groaned, but yanked his wallet out of his pocket and counted out the correct number of crumpled bills.

 

That was just one small bet among a thousand. 

Red had foolishly believed he and Green were competitive, they were children at a tea party compared to the twins. Touko and Touya had competition down to an art form.

But where Red and Green were rivals,  _ competitive  _ rivals, Touko and Touya were the very definition of friendly competition. Every thing was a bet. Who could dress first in the mornings, who could eat the most fries, who could chug their sports drink the quickest. 

In fact, Red’s first meeting with them was the result of a challenge: who could scale Mt. Silver first. That Red happened to be up there was of little to no consideration on their part. Each challenge was also a bet, with either small or large sums of money being exchanged between the siblings.

When Red had looked surprised at this, Touya had offered a brief explanation.

“It’s no fun if there’s no consequence, ya know?”

Red didn’t. Not really. But it was fun watching. Seeing the give and take between the two. It was almost a ritual, even though it’s execution was extremely casual. A call and answer, a reaffirming and solidifying of a relationship that stretched before they became trainers.

It made Red a little jealous to be honest. He had wanted this kind of friendly rivalry with Green and well, look how that had turned out. 

Though Touya and Touko were enthusiastic traveling companions who made sure that he was included in all their activities, this was the one thing he hadn’t been invited to join.

And it stung, a little. (a lot)

He felt a little bitter, a little envious watching Touko and Touya’s game play out in front of him, it was like being on the outside looking in. Like he had been for the majority of his life. Nothing he shouldn’t be used to, except, Touko and Touya had made it clear, in as many actions as they could, he  _ was _ on the inside.  _ Their _ inside. Except for this one activity, this one thing that was so near and casual, yet so intimate that it was almost instinctual on their part.

Being excluded from it  _ hurt _ .

And Red wasn’t sure what to do about it. So he did nothing. Figuring this would always be the one thing he wasn’t invited to join in on.

 

Until one morning Touya sniffed a can of rawst berry shake, wrinkled his nose, turned to Red with the can outheld and said:

“Bet you twenty pokedollars you can’t drink this in sixty seconds.” A mild challenge by the twins’ standards, but the first one either had issued to him.

Red could drink the shake in under sixty seconds, and he did and he couldn’t help the warm feeling in the pit of his stomach as Touya handed over the twenty pokedollars, to Touko’s laughter.

Or maybe that was just the extreme bitterness from the berry shake.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you're familiar with Rooster Teeth, the bbq bet might [ ring](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEc4NnNoH6Y) a [bell](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZhKJAgctR8)  
> It had the exact tone and character that I was looking for between these two.


	3. Chapter 3

Red learns about Touko and Touya in the little pieces they mention in passing. They never really sit down for a whole talk on anyone’s life story. Which is just fine by Red, he’d hate to go first.

He collects what he knows from Touya chattering away as they sit on a river bank, bare feet in the water, fish lure bobbing in the gentle current. Touko making light conversation to fill the silence in the underwater caves. He finds out that Unova has a higher age limit for trainer journeys, so Red is the senior trainer, despite being almost two years their junior. That the twins traveled together for the most part during their journey.

“We went off on our own few times. But we always had a meeting place.” Toukya skips a pebble across the calm inlet waters around Mt. Pyre. Red tosses a smooth stone in his hand, considering.

“And  _ someone _ brought a tagalong once who  _ tried _ to challenge me, but I don’t battle people that dumb.” Touko said with smug satisfaction, Touya’s face colored. “Gotta watch who you ride the ferris wheel with, bro.” Sometimes what they say makes no sense. Too obscure, but Red is okay with that.

They tell him that they started with two other friends who went their own way.

“Cheren’s a gym leader now.” They’re at an outside cafe in Mauville City. Watching the bikers pedaling by. Touya has his hands full with a burger, but takes time between bites to talk.

“And Bell’s Professor Juniper’s research assistant these days.” Red has to lean back a little from Touko, her empathic gesturing becomes dangerous once she’s holding eating utensils.

“Is she really?” Touya sounded a bit surprised.

“Uh, yeah. How did you not know that?” Touko gestured at him with her fork. Touya, brave man, didn’t even blink as a prong came perilously close to his eye, he merely shrugged.

“She’s been saying it for  _ years _ . I didn’t think it was official or anything.”

“No, yeah. It’s official. She’s got a lab coat and  _ everything _ .” 

Hearing about Touko and Touya’s friends, about how they made a life for themselves outside of the league. Red wonders what’s left for him. He was the champion and now he’s not. He’s a nobody. He’s sixteen years old, reached his peak at thirteen and has done less then nothing for the past three years. He doesn’t have the aptitude for a gym leader, he couldn’t even function as league Champion. Professor’s assistant is out, he doesn’t have the patience for that kind of field work. 

What else is there?

What were Touko and Touya going to do, once their roadtrip was over?

“We’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.” Touya says unconcerned in the slightest. They’re in Lavaridge town now, taking in the hot springs and the clear mountain air. It had taken a couple days for Red to work up to asking them about their future plans. Touko stuffs something lumpy, brown and tasting strongly of charcoal in Red’s mouth.

“I heard these were bombass cookies.” She says, not looking the least bit sorry when Red coughs sending a spray of crumbs over Touya, and keeps coughing until there’s no cookie left in his mouth.

“Bombass cookies for  _ pokemon _ .” Touya corrects in the tone of one long suffering, brushing half chewed bits of cookie from his windbreaker, waving off Red’s attempts to apologize with his other hand.

“I dare you to eat ten of these  _ at once _ .” Touko’s smile was sly and sharp. “Three oran berries if you can.” Touya sniffed disdainfully.

“That is the stupidest dare I ever heard. Give them here.” He manages five before choking and Red having to almost break his rib in a heimlich maneuver. Touko passes over two of the berries as compensation for accidentally getting close to killing him.

(The pokemon do like the cookies.)

  
  


Red never tells them that he was the Kanto Champion. It would be pointless, they already know, Touya knew before he even reached the mountain, Touko didn’t care one way or the other.

There is, however, a giant secret that Touko and Touya haven’t told him. Not out of malicious secret keeping, just out of general forgetfulness.

Red can tell, from observing their pokemon that the twins are  _ excellent _ battlers. Also from back when they’d met, Touko had as good as said they’d collected all the gym badges from their own region  _ and _ Kanto. They haven’t said anything about the Elite four of either region so Red assumes they’d decided not to challenge or had challenged and lost. Not asking about what was almost certainly a huge loss is what Red considers good manners. Green had never reacted well after Red beat him, his behavior after he lost the Champion title only reinforcing Red’s impression.

And Red didn’t want to upset his new friends. Especially over battles he never even saw and could easily look up himself whenever he wanted. Besides which, he didn’t want to talk about his own recent loss and that would inevitably be brought up.

His assumptions about Touko and Touya are backed up by neither twin seeming all that interested in challenging him or in challenging the Hoenn gyms.

“Meh,” Touya said with a shrug, when Red had pointed at the LilyCove City gym. The first gym they’d come to. “If you wanna, go right ahead, be our guest. We’ll cheer for you.” Red shook his head, pointing more empathetically at the gym. Touya got it the second time, his eyes lighting up with understanding. “Oh, yeah, no, we’re passing on that adventure for the moment.” He waved a hand through the air vaguely.

“We’re on  _ vacation _ .” Touko sang, slinging her arms around Red and Touya’s shoulders. “Let’s go shopping.” 

Red hadn’t thought too much of it at the time, letting Touko manhandle him into the huge department store that almost put Vermillion to shame. He’d skipped on the gyms because he didn’t want to be recognized, his pokemon and battle style were very distinctive after all and his reputation preceded him in most battling circuits. It hadn’t occurred to him that the same was true for Touko and Touya. Because when Touko said they were on vacation she’d meant a lot more then just from battling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some non tragic backstory for the twins.
> 
> In case you were wondering, Touko is the _stronger _battler but Touya is the _smarter _battler. It works out to Touko being a sledgehammer and Touya being a scalpel. They have to work harder when they're on their own but double battling them is the worst decision you could ever make.____


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what? Angst? In _my_ fun pokemon AU?

At the weather institute, Red tells them about Green, as lightning flashes across the sky, thunder shakes the ground and rain rattles the windows. It’s only fair, since they’ve told him about their friends that he tell them about his. He feels a little inadequate, Touko and Touya seem to make friends as easily as breathing, while he only has Green and well, them. He tries to paint Green in the best way possible. But he’s still so confused about what happened. They used to be the best of friends and then they weren’t and he still didn’t know where the shift happened.

Touko and Touya patiently wait for him to finish. The new pokegear they got him has an excellent notepad function that he has been testing the limits and beyond of. They read his muddled account together and share a look before shifting apart.

“Sit, sit” Touko pats the space between the two of them on the couch in the lobby. Red gingerly settles down, the faux leather squishing around his legs. Outside the storm rages on. Inside a lobby light flickers and steadies.

“Red, Red.” Touya begins, slinging an arm around Red’s shoulders. Touya is the calmer of the two, the one more likely to put into words what Touko understands on an instinctual level. “Sometimes people grow apart.” This isn’t what Red wanted to hear. “There’s really no one big event, it’s just a bunch of small things, little gaps that grow bigger and then one morning the kid you used to talk to every day, hasn’t spoken to you in five.” Red’s hands fist on his knees, his eyes stay locked on the floor. “We know it’s not what you want to hear but it is what you  _ need _ to hear. No one’s going to tell you this. Except us. We’ve been there.”

_ I thought winning would help. _ He typed out miserably. He’d gone through the entire league, all the way to champion because that was what Green had been talking about since he learned  _ how  _ to talk. And Red thought if he could show Green how good he was at it too, then they could be friends again.

Of course, his plan had backfired horribly.

“Oh Red, no.” Touko mussed his hair through his hat. “You can’t  _ make _ someone like you again. Not by being what you think they want you to be.”

“You gotta be steady.” Touya said, his arm lying comfortably on Red’s shoulders, feeling like an anchor. “Do what you want, be who  _ you  _ want to be. And if your friend is going through a phase or something, just be there. And maybe they’ll come back.” Red had the slight feeling that they weren’t just talking about Green and him right then.

“There’s also the possibility that they  _ won’t _ come back, but at least you’ll be happier with where and who you are than right now, yeah?” Touya stood up, removing his arm in a stretch. Red missed the warm weight of it immediately. But Touko hadn’t moved, she slouched next to him on the couch. She continued talking. “There’s a guy we know, we’d like to think of him as friend, despite all the trouble he brought along. He’s...kinda doing the same thing you are.”

“Totally ran off.” Touya grumbled. “Like an idiot.” Red colored slightly, because that sounded exactly like what he’d done. “Guess he just wasn’t quite ready to face things. We did sort of completely trash his world view.”

“So we figured we’d get the hell out of dodge too, see something of the world and maybe when we got back, he’d be ready. We’d be at a point in our lives where we can finally be friends.” Touko folded her hands in her lap. “You can always start over Red, if you don’t like how things are going, you can always change it. We’ve all got our whole lives ahead of us.” Red nodded dumbly. 

“Just think about it, okay? You got plenty of time to decide what to do. And if you get overwhelmed, we’re here.” Touya grinned at him, Touko’s hand mussed his cap again, knocking it off his head, so her sharp nailed hand could  _ really _ ruffle his hair. “We’ll help you out.” Red doesn’t know what to say to that, so he says nothing. Just ducks his head, lets his wild hair hide his eyes.

But the twins understand.

“Come on.” Touya’s strong grip pulling him to his feet. “Let’s get back to the center. Get a good night’s sleep.”

“And tomorrow,” Touko’s voice is all glee, Red can’t help the small shaky smile at her excitement. They’ve been everywhere in Hoenn afterall. They’d agreed that today was the last day. Which was why Red had decided to tell them about Green. He had a whole new region to distract him. “Tomorrow we go to Sinnoh!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the working title for this chapter was 'growing pains'  
> The next chapter is 'Lance is a smart cookie.'


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have an intense headache today.   
> By which I mean, I can sympathize with Lance.

Meanwhile in Kanto, things are reaching a fever pitch.

Apparently, Red had been  _ missed _ since he’d left Mt. Silver in the company of Touya and Touko. He’d forgotten to tell anyone he was leaving. It wasn’t like he told anyone when he went up there in the first place, so he thought he could be forgiven for not telling anyone when he left it.

(“No, you’re an idiot.” Green said in response.)

Red had a habit of forgetting how bad he was at social graces, in his defense Touko and Touya had a habit of ignoring how awkward at it he was, inadvertently encouraging him.

Anyway, at some point Green had gone up Mt. Silver and found him gone.

Not ‘just stepped out for a bit, be back in a few’ gone, but ‘snow has covered all trace that I was ever here that’s how long gone I am’ gone.

Which had launched something of a giant search and rescue mission, starting on Mt Silver and then slowly encompassing both Kanto and Jhoto.

Red had broken his original pokegear in a spectacular fall on the way down Mt. Silver, aided in part by Touko and Touya. Guiltily, the twins had purchased him a brand new, state of the art pokegear. But true to form Red hadn’t bothered porting his old data over so the only contacts were Touko and Touya. With his old gear out of commission all anyone got when calling was a disconnected message.

Red was blissfully unaware of the increasing concern of friends, family and league members back in Kanto. Ones who had suddenly discovered that the former champion, the one who had been ensconced on Mt. Silver for the last three years, the boy, the man, the living legend, wasn’t there anymore. Shortly after his first defeat to the new Champion, Gold, as well.

This does not bode well for anyone’s peace of mind.

The last two people who had been sent to the mountain before Green arrived to find it deserted and therefore  _ might _ have information on Red, were two teenagers from Unova.

“Her name was Touko.” Green said with heavy finality, as though repressing memories. “I tried to tell her about Mt. Silver, she took off before I finished talking.”

“I told a young trainer about Mt. Silver as well, he introduced himself as Touya.” Professor Oak volunteered. “A good lad, very empathetic, His pokemon were all well cared for.”

“Wait, their names were Touko and Touya?” Lance asked, stroking his chin in a patented thinking pose. “It couldn’t be…” He trailed off and then dashed out of the room, fantastic cape bellowing behind him. 

Green shrugged at Brock’s raised eyebrow.

 

As luck would have it, Unova was currently embroiled in the Team Plasma Debacle Part Deux. And no league member was available to take Lance’s incredibly urgent call.

“Listen man, unless you have a foolproof way to kick team Plasma’s teeth in, we’re busy!” The league clerk snapped just before hanging up the red league emergency phone.

“Wow, rude.” Gold commented from his place next to Lance’s elbow. Lance squeezed his eyes shut with a prayer to Arceus for patience. Gold was the  _ exact _ opposite of Red, preferring to stick right on Lance’s bootheels as the new champion. “Want me to go sort their shit out?”

“No.” Lance tried for patience and wound up with tersely annoyed. He couldn’t believe he was actually missing having an absent Champion, but here he was. “We cannot get involved in another league’s issues without being asked directly by the current champion or a majority vote of the gym leaders and elite four.”

“ _ Lame _ .” Gold paused for a moment and employed the critical thinking skills he was so famous for in battle. “Wait, why were you calling the Unova League?”

“Because,” Lance ground out, this time dialing from his pokegear, not a league number but a personal one. Professor Juniper should be able to help. “The former Unova League Champion’s name is Touya.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _someone_ starts to get a clue. Thanks Lance, you da best champion of all time. ever.  
>  Yes, Gold spends all his time at the league, trying to figure out how to do league shit. Unfortunately, he was not made for the boring day to day activities of a champion and most of the time Lance has to grab his shirt to stop him from charging off and making a disaster of something.


	6. Chapter 6

Unfortunately, Professor Juniper was also unavailable, which left the league with only one prospect. 

An almost unanimous vote decided that Green would be the best to send out into the world to search for the two wayward teens, possibly, hopefully,  _ three _ . 

Green called tauroshit.

“There has  _ got _ to be a better way then this. We have psychic pokemon for a reason!” He protested, but it fell on deaf ears. The other gym leaders completely on board with shoving him out the door.

“You  _ are _ the one who knows Red the best out of all of us.” Lance pointed out, gamely ignoring Gold’s ‘but I  _ beat _ him!’. “And as the last gym on the circuit you have a bit of time on your hands.” Also ignoring ‘I’m the champion, I have  _ the most _ time on my hands!’.

“If they’ve already beaten both the Kanto and Jhoto regions, they may have gone to challenge the Hoenn region next.” Erika suggested.

Well that was as a good a starting place as any, Green decided as Lt. Surge tossed him out of league headquarters.

 

Green hadn’t thought he’d strike paydirt as soon as he landed in Slateport with one stall keeper saying:

“Oh yeah! I remember those kids. Twins they were, very loud, very lively!” The stall keeper gestured hugely with his arms to convey the energy Touko and Touya had. “They had another kid with them, quiet one he was. His friends did the talking for him.” Green shoved a picture of Red at the stall keeper. It was the most current one he had, cropped from a selfie Gold had  _ convinced  _ Red to take. “That’s the kid!” The stall keeper exclaimed. 

Oh. My. Arceus. 

Green was going to  _ deck  _ Red when he caught up to them. 

“You know, he didn’t say a  _ word _ the entire time.”

“He’s mute.” Green muttered, shoving the picture back in his pocket.

“Really? His friends seemed to understand him just fine.” Green blinked. That was...that was unexpected. 

“Thanks.” Green responded curtly, shoving his hands in his pockets as he speed walked to the pokemon center. As long as he could remember only Red’s mother, his pokemon and Green seemed to understand Red. Even though he knew sign language, and now had a psychic pokemon to translate for him, Red rarely made his thoughts known in a way that other people could interpret.

Green decided to shelf that particular line of thought and what it could mean in favor of following through on his next move.

Which was to contact Steven Stone, if there was anyone who would know which gym Red and the twins were on it would be Steven.

 

Green couldn’t have been more wrong.

Not only does Steven  _ not _ know what gym Red might be at, but he has no idea that Red is even in Hoenn, let alone traveling with Touya and Touko.

“Red? Here? In Hoenn?” He asked, seeming a little bewildered by the thought. “With Touya? I’m sure I would have heard of it by now if they were challenging the gyms.” He laughed a little. “Two former champions couldn’t help but make a splash challenging our league.”

“Sooooo...nothing?” Green asked, just to be sure.

“Nothing. Not a peep.” Steven held his hands out with a shrug. “I haven’t heard anything from the casual route trainers. Not even from the rangers.” He shook his head. “No one matching Red or Touya’s description has been battling in this region.”

Green left Steven’s house in Mossdeep City pensive and vaguely upset.

Red’s current behavior was downright  _ weird _ . As far as Green knew, Red was a pokemon battling  _ machine _ . The kid lived for battle and he was damn good at it. Green was man enough now to admit that Red was a better battler then he was. Red (and Gold) tended to leave a trail of defeated trainers and wild pokemon in his wake whenever he went traveling. 

The thought that Red was wandering throughout Hoenn and wasn’t bothering to visit gyms or battle a single trainer was...worrying. It was worrying.

 

Steven Stone and the gym leaders might not have seen Red or the two Unova trainers, but the scientists at the rocket station were certainly familiar with the three teens. Green had followed his vague thought process of  _ if you aren’t here to battle what would you do? _ And wound up in the rocket station.

Touya, he was told, had bought every single bag of M&M’s in the vending machine and then bet Red he couldn’t catch five in mouth from six feet away. Turns out Red had an previously undiscovered talent in catching M&M’s with his mouth. He’ caught the five, and then ten and then twenty, in a row. Until Touya had admitted defeat and turned over a potion.

There was something going on, that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. It was driving Green up the metaphorical wall.

Green’s vague thought process was now starting to turn into a defined suspicion.

_ What would you visit in Hoenn if you weren’t battling? _

The old woman in charge of the Lava Ridge Hot Springs remembered them. More accurately she remembered one boy choking on lava ridge cookies while his sister laughed and their friend performed the Heimlich on him.

All the stall keepers in Slateport had sold them things, trinkets, dolls, little odds and ends. They hadn’t been shopped out by Slateport because the LillyCove Department store clerks regaled Green with tales of Touko and Red racing up the stairs to see who could get to the roof first.

The Ash Collector had made Touya a beautiful glass desk out of the ash the three had pooled together.

The residents of  Pacifidlog Town recalled that the girl had body checked both herself and the black haired boy into the water after yelling ‘Think fast!’. The shopkeep in Fortree City had an amusing anecdote about them trying to see who could climb the tallest tree in the city the fastest.

“Thought the young one would break his neck trying to keep up with the other two. His pikachu beat them all up there.”

They’d visited every one of the restaurants and cafes in Mauville city. Dominated the game corner completely, buying out all the pokedolls in stock. 

“The brown haired boy, he said he wanted a pile big enough to swim in.” The prize counter clerk told Green, looking supremely bemused. The bike store owner knew them by name.

“I  _ knew _ they were famous!” He shouted in triumph when Green confirmed that yes, Red was  _ that _ Red and Touya was  _ that _ Touya. “They rented out Acro bikes for a trip up to the weather institute.”

The receptionist at the Weather Institute informed him that the girl had mentioned going to Sinnoh next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Green is long suffering in this and completely unamused with everyone.


	7. Chapter 7

The picture that was forming in Green’s mind was nothing short of bewildering.

Green had been to Mt Silver, had discovered Red missing. It hadn’t looked like the area had seen a fight between two former champions, or a former champion and an almost champion. It hadn’t looked like it’d seen a battle at all since Gold.

Which meant that Touya and Touko had climbed Mt. Silver, met Red and then  _ no one had battled _ . They’d left the mountain together, traveled to Hoenn and continued to not engage in battle. Doing everything and anything that  _ wasn’t _ battling in fact. 

Two former champions and a champion level trainer were traveling around like...like they were  _ tourists _ .

Wait.

Shit.

That was it! Green stopped stock still on the path in shock. They were being  _ tourists _ .

He had to sit down on a conveniently located bench because what he’d just thought up made too much sense and not enough at the same time.

Mind whirling, Green forced himself to take a deep breath before slowly thinking through what he knew.

He knew that Touko hadn’t been all that excited during their battle, despite the fact that she’d shown enthusiasm at the start and then had mopped the floor with him. She’d taken off for Mt. Silver before he’d even told her about the trainer at the top. About Red. About how strong he was. Green hadn’t even had time to tell her Red’s name when she’d left. She hadn’t gone to challenge him, hadn’t gone for the former champion at the top, she’d gone to  _ climb the mountain _ .

Just because apparently.

Touya by all accounts hadn’t seemed to enjoy his jaunt through the Jhoto league anymore then Touko had enjoyed her Kanto league challenge. Neither had gone on to the elite four but not because they’d been lacking badges or skill.

A lack of interest then. 

Touya stopped by Green’s grandfather’s lab to speak with the professor, probably on his way to meet back up with his sister but hadn’t shown any interest in challenging the Kanto league. He’d known about Red when he went to Mt. Silver but maybe it was merely to connect with a former champion like himself?

But Touya was a  _ completely _ different champion then Red. 

Touya, according to Lance had been Champion for a little under six months when a younger gym leader had overthrown him. Instead of taking a position as a gym leader, Touya had gone back home and then Green guessed, had decided to travel, taking Touko with him.

It seemed slightly strange that Touko hadn’t gone after his championship, she certainly had the chops for it from what Green had seen first hand. She could have been Champion herself if her brother hadn’t beat her to it. But she’d never challenged him for the title.

There was something he was missing, Green was sure of it. Some piece of the puzzle that when placed would make the twins’ behavior make sense.

It didn’t make sense though, that  _ Red _ had gone along with their idea of playing tourist.

That  _ none _ of them had thus far battled each other. A pokemon battle between two former champions,  _ someone _ would have noticed. Even if it played out off the beaten path. The kind of energy and action that a pokemon battle of that magnitude would create,  _ someone _ would see it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, some bad news, we're winding down to the end here but I also just blew through my chapter buffer. Work's been kicking my ass lately, so I haven't had the energy or the time to write and I have a really big test to study for. Which means I may not be able to update next Sunday.
> 
> But I never post a story here I don't intend to finish. And I have a good portion of the final chapter written, so there's that.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today was a day, and I figure it was about time I finished this.  
> So here you are!
> 
>  
> 
>   
>  [True Believers by Bouncing Souls](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP2cOXCTroA)  
> 

 

In Sinnoh Green checks in with the league to let them know he’s in the area and on the off chance that Red or Touya or Touko dropped the tourist act.

But no, there’s been no sign of them in the gyms or the battle circuits.

With a heavy sigh, Green asks for a tourist brochure and starts plotting where they could have gone.

The weather institute receptionist indicated that he’d only been a day or so behind them. They couldn’t have gotten _too_ far into Sinnoh right?

 

Green will never stop being amazed at how wrong he can be when it came to Red.

He follows their trail all the way to the underground. Deep in the earth the smell of dirt and metal around him, he finds what he’s looking for. Green turns a corner and comes to a complete halt. On the other side of the tunnel, Red does the same.

Red sees him. He sees Red.

They both stare at each other. Red’s eyes slowly widen. Green’s slowly narrow. He knows what Red’s about to do, just as Red starts to turn.

“Do you fucking _dare_ , Red!” He hollers, but too late, Red sprints away. Green chases after him. That complete _moron_. Why did he have to make Green’s life just that much harder? When he catches up to Red, he’s not sure exactly what he’ll do, but he’s fairly certain it won’t be pleasant.

 

Instead of actually catching Red though, Green gets treated to a front row seat of Red running smack into Touya. Taking both himself and the other former champion down in a tangle of flailing limbs. Green slides to a disbelieving stop.

“Oh, that’s just _precious_.” Touko says, from outside the danger zone of swinging arms, kicking legs and startled squawking. The sudden flash from her pokegear camera setting makes Green grunt and throw his arm over his eyes. “And you brought a friend!” She paused and peered closer at Green, who slowly lowered his arm to meet her suspicious gaze. “I know you…” She trailed off, gaze sharpening. Red didn’t say anything, except to scramble to his feet. But Touko looked at him briefly before looking back at Green. She snapped her fingers and pointed at him. “You’re Green!”

“Are you here to take Red back?” Touya asked quietly, on his feet now as well, dusting down the back of his pants and dignity. Red shrinks a little in on himself, subtly shuffling closer to Touko.

“No, you idiot.” Green sighed aggressively, talking to Red instead of Touya. Neither sibling seemed to mind. “If you don’t want to come back, you don’t have to. They just sent me after you for, I don’t even really know. To make sure you were still alive I guess?” Touko laughed viciously.

“Sounds just like the pokemon league.” Red was still tense, shoulders a stiff line, with the fingers of his right hand clutching at the hemline of Touko’s vest. “Can’t figure anything out for themselves so they dump it on the first kid to wander in the door.”

“I _am_ a gym leader you know.” Green felt the need to point out testily, a knee-jerk defensive reaction. He _was_ pokemon league after all.

“I know.” Touko grinned at him. “I kicked your ass for a badge remember?”

“I try everyday to forget.”

“Yeah, getting such a beatdown is embarrassing, isn’t it?” Touko asked in mock sympathy. Green stopped himself from the angry retort. He wasn’t ten anymore. Gritting his teeth, he turned back to Red.

“Look, I get it, you’re on vacation. Taking some time off, whatever. That’s fine.” Red blinked at him, surprised? What had he thought? That he was stuck on Mt. Silver until the end of time? Actually, yes. That’s probably exactly what Red thought. “Just, call home? Let your mom know you’re going to be gone? The normal things people do when they go on vacation?” Touya slapped his fist into the palm of his hand with a gasp of realization.

“I _knew_ we forgot to do something!” He said, brown eyes wide. " _Postcards!_ "

“You too?” Green snarled. “You know there’s a crisis going down in Unova right now.”

“When isn’t there?” Touko returned, even as Touya looked absolutely torn, she waved a hand in the air. “They can learn to take care of themselves for once.”

“Ehhhhhh…” The sound Touya made was like a dying meowth. Touko huffed, rolling her eyes.

“ _Fine_.” She fairly spat. “We’ll check it out, once we’re done here. On the way to Kalos.” Touya grinned happily.

“You gonna go with them?” Green asked Red, his eyebrows raised. Point blank, yes or no, there was no way for Red to get out of answering. Red looked at the ground instead. “You _can_ go with.” Green growled. He wasn’t used to this, Red of the past had not had any problems letting Green know what he or didn’t want to do.

 

It was something that had been brewing in the back of Green’s mind during the entire chase Red down thing.

These trainers. Red, Touko, Touya, now Gold. They blew right by the competition, they were at the height of their game. And they were young. So young.

Gym leaders took _years_ in the making, Green himself knew he still had a ways to go to be the gym leader he wanted to be. The champions took even more time. Lance had said it had taken him quite a few years before he’d been able to claim the Champion’s title and even longer before he fully grew into the position.

Red, Touya and Gold had done it in less then two years. They were living legends in the pokemon battling circuits.

But what did that mean for the kids behind the status? Behind the titles?

What did you do after all was said and done? When you beat the best at twelve years old?

Gold was busying himself with pestering Lance, trying to learn be the best Champion he could be in all aspects. Was that because he _wanted_ to be Champion or because now that he _was_ champion, what else was there to turn his energy toward?

Touko seemed to be the most well adjusted, but then she’d never been the Champion. Never even tried to challenge her brother for it. Green was starting to see why.

Being the Champion was the end of the end.

The be all, end all.

Once you had it though, what did you do?

Green had never really thought about it from this angle. His own defeat had come so swift and sharp. Had left him with the knowledge that here was an unbeatable rival, that he’d never stopped to think about what it meant to _be_ the unbeatable rival.

To be the one with all the expectations hanging over your head.

When he’d thought about it, _really_ thought about it, Green knew he wouldn’t have been able to handle it.

All the weight of being a champion, along with the weight of being so young.

No wonder Red ran when he had the chance.

 

“Yes Red,” Green said with a sigh. He couldn't blame the guy now that he'd thought about it. “It’s okay for you to go do something other then battling.” And almost smacked himself in the face at the open mouthed look Red gave him. Like he hadn’t expected _Green_ to say that. Which slightly annoyed Green to some degree. Touya and Touko were having some sort of silent with their eyes only kind of conversation. So Green ignored them, focused on Red and held up a finger.

“One question. Just one.” Red cautiously nodded. “Why haven’t you battled him yet?!” Green yanked Touya over with a fist in the boy’s collar, pointing at the somewhat confused boy’s face. Red squinted at Green. Squinted at him in confusion.

Wait.

Green was starting to have another premonition.

“Red.” He said slowly, releasing his grip on Touya, who immediately brushed down the front of his shirt. “You do realize you’ve been wandering around two whole regions with the former Champion of Unova and the runner up, right?” Red turned to stare at the twins, because no, he hadn’t known. They hadn’t said a word about it.

“Whoops.” Touko laughed, looking anything but sorry. Highly amused with her brother and her’s absentmindedness. “I knew we forgot to tell him something.”

“Uh, surprise?” Touya offers weakly, wiggling his fingers in a half hearted attempt at jazz hands. Red silently and slowly lowered his face into his palm, shoulders shaking in quiet laughter.

Why had he expected anything else honestly?

 

_I've met some people along the way,_  
_Some of them split some of them stay,_  
_Some of them walk some walk on by,_  
_I've got a few friends I'll love till I die_  
_From all of these people I try to learn,_  
_Some of them shine some of them burn,_  
_Some of them rise some of them fall,_  
_For good or bad I've known them all_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is in memory of a kid I knew years back. One time, we started an rp together called Race Up Mt. Silver. He was Touya and I was Touko. We never finished that rp. This is a last goodbye I guess. What might have happened if we had.  
> He liked the stupid shit I wrote, so I'm pretty sure he would have liked this.


End file.
